15 Lies Clients Tell Their Designers

Creative Market Last updated: April 9, 2024 · 1 min read

We all tell little white lies from time to time, right? Or maybe some half-truths that don’t really communicate the full picture? Recently, I picked on designers with a funny post about the lies we tell our clients. Today, I’m flipping it around and calling out some of the most common lies clients tell designers. If you see a lie that a client has told you, Pin, Tweet, or otherwise share it out. If you don’t see one that you relate to, write a new one and share it out on social media with the hashtag #clientLies. Lies-ClientsSay-1 Lies-ClientsSay-2 Lies-ClientsSay-3 Lies-ClientsSay-4-fixed Lies-ClientsSay-5 Lies-ClientsSay-6 Lies-ClientsSay-7 Lies-ClientsSay-8 Lies-ClientsSay-9 Lies-ClientsSay-10 Lies-ClientsSay-11 Lies-ClientsSay-12 Lies-ClientsSay-13 Lies-ClientsSay-14 Lies-ClientsSay-15

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23 Comments

Carmia Jordaan

"Our last designer wasn't really a good fit"... I've heard this many times. If a client says their previous designers weren't up to scratch then the problem lies with the client! Never take on a client like this. I can say this from experience ;) 10 years ago

Shae W

LOL!! Revisions..yes somehow those always seem to exceed the allotted amount and then little before you know it, it's way past 15+ haha. 10 years ago

Catherine Boudreau

Usually I get these in two hours or less. Why does it take so long now? 10 years ago

Anonymous

I think It is better to have a good agreement between the designer & the client before working on a project.. 10 years ago

Sergey Kulistov

Nice fun! 10 years ago

Joh-Mari van Heerden

My favourite: "I know EXACTLY what I want"......"You are going to show me every possible picture of ornate frames in the world until I decide what I want." 10 years ago

Jajat Rohmana

The really fresh and unique design, but want to copy other design exactly. Really happened and sometimes make me think it kills your creative juice 10 years ago

Shantel Collins

AHAHAH This cracked me up so bad like the client last week who wanted me to copy her logo exactly like the one she purchased off of a site that didn't offer commercial usage. Or the ones who want to add 50 additional changes after the project has started by buttering me up with compliments. Compliment me with cash LOL 10 years ago

DESIGN ROOM1229

I have a good for you. This is for brochure 32 pages: We have send you the text and images. Also we send brief how we want the design with attached some samples. Why you charging us this price? We've done half of your job. Now this totally take me out of my shoes. There is much more but i'll stop here. You got the picture. 10 years ago

Akshay Nankani

rolf 10 years ago

santosh kumar

Client: "Why so much time & cost? Some xXx designer delivered a no. of designs in few minutes of order & for few bucks" - is my frequent experience :-) 10 years ago

Deb Ballard

LIE: "If you happen to feel as if you're doing more work than you originally estimated/quoted, please don't hesitate to just let us know and we'll of course be happy to reimburse you!" TRUTH: "Go on - send that extra invoice - I dare you" ... (crickets chirping 2 weeks after invoice is sent" ...) This is good stuff. I related to almost every one of them! :) It's fun to share horror stories with other geeks. Thanks for the laughs! :) 10 years ago

pixelcolours

lol so true 10 years ago

Madeleine Roy-Sherman

Deb your comment made me burst out laughing! 10 years ago

Keith Wilson

Client: "Put flames on it, everything looks better with flames on it." Me: "Its a corporate accountancy website." Client: "Just put the flames on it!" 10 years ago

Anonymous

They are all so true! :D 9 years ago

Khara Woods

Story of my life! Love these. Keep 'em coming. They make me laugh and take the edge off a bit. Still love what I do though! 9 years ago

Clear Market LLC.

Lol, these are awesome. How is it that every client thinks that they are designers as well? Lol! Great stuff! 9 years ago

Krystle Gamrak

Bahhaha...these are great :) 9 years ago

Jesi Kelly

My nightmare is when they say it will only take me a few minutes. This is true about calls, but also in design work. It'll only take a you a few minutes is code for I'll throw you five bucks or I straight up will not pay you for this - even if it takes you hours. 9 years ago

Tatyana Urzhuntseva

So cuuuuute =) I think it's only Russian tradition of awful clients, but I mistaked) 8 years ago

Airi Hunt

I had a customer, who wanted a design of thermomugs. So she described in detail, how should it look like. I was following the vision... was ready with it.. then BUMM!!! She said I had it compleatly wrong and after trying xx times out different directions, she described, customer finally quit. Apparently I did not get her ideas. BUT worse is coming.. days later, she prodly shows her new mugs from another very good graphist - they were copycat of my proposals!!! 8 years ago

Visualmodo WordPress Themes

WOW! this can rives me crazy hahaha awesome post! 8 years ago

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